I'm a systems thinker who enjoys bringing people together to solve complex problems through creativity, innovation, and design. I see patterns and connections where others don't, and use that skill to develop and execute disruptive strategies. In short, I'm a change agent making the world a better place by humanizing our interaction with products, services, and, ultimately, each other.
I’m committed to helping people and making a difference in their lives. I use empathy as a tool to see things from the perspective of others and develop ways to make our interactions more human.
I believe in building things with people, not just for people. This goes beyond mere collaboration. When the users of a product or service are involved in the development process, it’s more likely to make a real difference.
I believe that openness and transparency take the friction out of collaboration and help us better understand how to balance our diverse interests. Together we can maximize the possibilities for mutual benefit by being our authentic selves.
I believe trust within organizations is critical to developing creative solutions. When we don’t trust each other, we impose rules that inhibit new approaches to solving problems and fear the audacity of hope.
I believe that we can always do better and that continuous innovation helps organizations adapt to an accelerating velocity of change in the world. To innovate, we must constantly work to connect the dots.
I am not afraid to fail. Now, you might be afraid if we fail, but I’ve learned strategies to experiment without bearing significant risk. I can help us collect insights to guide future actions by always being in beta.
I believe organizations are communities and that the strength of an organization depends on how tightly woven the community is. When we build teams of people who share a common vision, we nurture our communities.
I believe that when things don’t go according to plan, we can and should bounce back quickly. Sometimes we need a change in strategy without a change in vision. Other times a plan isn’t even appropriate in the first place.
I’m a T-shaped generalist with a broad diversity of skills and deep subject matter expertise in public administration and civic innovation. I improve the methods, tools, and services by which citizens interact with public agencies, civic organizations, and each other. Here are the roles that have kept me busy in my professional career:
Advancing policies, processes, resources, and incentives to build Sacramento's startup pipeline, engage the innovation ecosystem, and make City Hall open for business.
Helping organizations and brands tell their stories through compelling visual, cross-platform communications. I do just about everything, but specialize in video production and user experience design.
Advanced critical governance/structural reform policies for the state of California related to elections, the budget process, and civic engagement. Performed strategic planning, data analysis, and public policy development.
Advised executive staff in the Schwarzenegger Administration on a variety of public policy issues facing the agency, which oversees many of the largest departments in the state. Led the implementation of an Executive Order to expand broadband deployment by streamlining the permitting process and helped state agencies better collaborate.
Analyzed and tracked legislation, and served as assistant press secretary.
Built a grassroots coalition on the CSU Sacramento campus to advocate for campaign finance reform.
Analyzed campaign finance data and developed content for public reports.
Helped spin up Region Technology, a trade association of Region Business for the technology industry and other related firms.
Leading an early-stage enterprise software-as-a-service startup focused on performance management automation for government and nonprofit organizations.
Built a bridge between the California Health & Human Services Agency's open data team and local health data stakeholders. Identified community needs and guided product development.
Sac2050 is the next phase of Public Innovation. We're engaging the public to develop a shared vision for the Sacramento region. That vision will be translated into measurable goals to support the development of a civic operating system to track progress toward those goals. In addition, we will link the programs and activities of public and nonprofit organizations with their social impact.
As a Code for America Brigade, we're part of a national network of civic-minded volunteers who contribute their skills toward using the web as a platform for local government and community service.
Laid the foundation for a nascent civic innovation and social entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Sacramento region. Developed civic technology products, incubated civic projects, empowered change agents, and brought people together to solve public problems and improve the citizen experience. Ultimately, we could not create sufficient market demand to sustain a civic incubator in Sacramento, so we pivoted to product-focused model with advent of Sac2050.
Lead for event b-roll and promotional video production.